Corn & Crude Oil Drop as Ukraine Does Not Threaten Exports

Crude oil and corn reacted to the situation in Ukraine in a surprising manner: prices for the commodities fell instead of rising. The Crimea region held a referendum over the weekend, which resulted in secession from Ukraine and annexation by Russia. Western countries announced the referendum to be illegal, and the United States imposed sanctions against Russian officials who supported Crimea’s secession.

One might have expected that the problems in Ukraine should boost prices for the raw materials but this was not the case. It looks like traders believe that the current situation does not threaten exports of oil from Russia and corn from Ukraine, and such outlook hurt prices. Indeed, there are reports that Ukraine is shipping the grain without any disruptions.

April futures for WTI crude oil declined $0.86 (0.87 percent) to $98.03 per barrel as of 00:28 GMT on NYMEX today. May contract for delivery of Brent oil sank as much as $1.97 (1.82 percent) to $106.24 per barrel on ICE. Corn tumbled $0.07 (1.44 percent) to $4.79 per bushel on CBoT.
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